Extn. 21 by Lizzie Oxby

In 2007, you’ll recall Madame Tutli Putli‘s disturbing and effective use of live action eyes composited onto the animated puppets.

A few years earlier, British filmmaker Lizzie Oxby combined stop-motion animation, live action performance (placing a live action head on a stop-mo puppet) and digital effects for her film Extn. 21. The results are equally effective — a bit creepy, but totally intriguing.

Totally creepy, which I suspect was the intent. The real head/puppet body was only distracting for a brief moment near the beginning, and once things really started rolling it stopped being important and I got carried along for the ride. Masterful and absorbing work all around.